Red Lines

With every passing month of inaction from the West, it becomes increasingly clear that no one is going to help rescue Syria from collapse. As if this scenario wasn’t dire enough, enter the jihadists, empowered by money from Gulf States. They now act with state-within-a-state impunity, building private armies and imposing Sharia law. Amidst this power vacuum we see the emergence of 21st-century revolutionaries: technology-armed individuals of conscience who take it upon themselves to replace ineffectual international aid agencies, war correspondents and foreign governments.

Red Lines follows two such activists: Razan Shalab-al-Sham, 27, the daughter of a wealthy family in Homs, Syria. An English major who adored Shakespeare in college, she now directs a vast network of financiers, activists, and smugglers spanning Syria. Mouaz Moustafa moved with his family from a refugee camp near Damascus to Arkansas when he was 12. Sixteen years and a world of experience later, his contacts in the Arab world and the Free Syrian Army make Mouaz an essential source of intelligence for the U.S. government and the media, and political access for the revolution.

Seeking to prove to the world that a democratic Syria is attainable if the rebels are armed and supported, Mouaz and Razan hatch a plan…it’s as audacious as it is dangerous: Start with one free Syrian village. Create a democratically-elected civilian council and transform the rebels into a police force. Provide proper training, communications equipment, paychecks, supplies, and create an island of democracy worth saving.

But despair looms, along with the nightmare scenario they prophetically feared if the West didn’t intervene. This exhausting journey, under a despot’s reign and over their own red lines, may well reach a heartbreaking conclusion. But much is still within their power…and both know that giving up cannot be part of this story’s end.